April 15, 2011

There was something missing the other day in Hegewisch Marsh as ducks paddled across ponds and a white egret moved its pencil-thin legs through a field of cattails. The absent feature wasn’t flora and fauna threatened by the factories that dominate the Lake Calumet area on Chicago’s Southeast Side. It was a building inspired by the way birds make their nests.

Seven years ago next week, on Earth Day in 2004, city officials unveiled a design for that building, an education and research center that was to be called the Ford Calumet Environmental Center. The design by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, who has since won acclaim for the curvy Aqua tower, promised to take environmentally-friendly “green” architecture beyond its fixation with lowering energy costs.

The design’s signature feature was a long porch (above), with a screen made of recycled steel that was to keep birds from colliding with the building and killing themselves. Inside, exhibition space was to weave through pod-shaped zones devoted to labs and offices, classrooms and a café. The site was 134th Street and Torrence Avenue, just south of the big Ford Motor Co. plant. And the projected completion date was 2006.

The “Best Nest” design, as it was called, instantly became a symbol of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s vow to make Chicago “the greenest city in America.” Daley promised that visitors would come from all over the world to see how “nature, industry and community interconnect in an urban area.”

Yet now, with Daley about to leave office, the city still hasn’t raised the funds it needs to build the $27 million center and is examining how to scale back its scope and cost.

For the sights and sounds of the Hegewisch Marsh, as well as an interview with local environmental activists about the Best Nest, click here.

Trying to put the best face on the gap between aesthetic vision and financial reality, Department of Environment (DOE) Commissioner Suzanne Malec-McKenna said she hopes the Best Nest can go from the equivalent of a bald eagle’s large nest to one fit for a peregrine falcon—”smaller but still great.”

But her assurances haven’t eased the fears of grassroots environmental activists in Hegewisch who were stunned on March 15 when a deputy DOE commissioner reportedly warned that Gang’s design might be abandoned altogether.

The activists fret that the Best Nest could be seriously compromised by cost-cutting—or that Malec-McKenna, the center’s champion at City Hall, could be replaced under incoming mayor Rahm Emanuel. The design “may be in jeopardy,” Judith Lihota and Grace Sowa of the Calumet Ecological Park Association wrote in a March 22 letter to the mayor-elect. (Above, Sowa, left and Lihota, at Hegewisch Marsh.)

Their concerns speak to a larger issue: Are good public buildings possible in the age of austerity?

With government budgets drowning in red ink, many voters have a visceral response to any ambitious, taxpayer-backed proposal: “We can’t afford it.” Even privately-funded initiatives, like the controversial plan to relocate the Chicago Children’s Museum from Navy Pier to Grant Park, have stalled. The Best Nest, which largely would be built with private funds, is a victim of this syndrome. Its image also has been tarred by recent published reports casting the plan as an example of hyper-expensive “green” architecture.

According to those reports, the project’s price tag has soared to $27 million from an initial estimate of $7.6 million. But that is not an apples-to-apples comparison. All it reveals—surprise!--is that city officials low-balled the project’s overall cost when they announced that Gang and her firm, Studio Gang Architecture, had bested 107 entrants from nine countries in a design competition for the center (above, the competition-winning design).

In reality, as Malec-McKenna acknowledged, the $7.6 million figure was simply the cost of a bare-bones building. It did not include a total of $6 million in grant money that the city later spent to buy and restore the 130-acre Hegewisch Marsh.

Only when Gang’s firm finished construction drawings did a 2008 cost analysis reveal the full price tag for the center and related site work, such as a parking lot and utilities. That estimate was $17.36 million, according to Gang’s partner, Mark Schendel. The revised estimate also reflected upgrades to the building’s energy-saving mechanical systems and the addition of features like an orientation area, Malec-McKenna said.

Add in the $6 million that’s already been spent on land acquisition and restoration, factor in three years of rising construction costs as well as anticipated bills for exhibits, furnishings and other items, and you get to $27 million.

But the city only has about $10 million for the project—another $6 million, courtesy of a donation from Ford; $3 million from the state, and $1 million in grants. In other words, accounting for that already-used $6 million, the city is at least $10 million short. “We’re committed to the design,” Malec-McKenna said. “We just may need to do it for less money.”

In the next few weeks, she will meet with the architects and ask them to develop alternatives for paring back the plan while retaining its essential characteristics. But the architects don’t sound eager to do that, although they’re not closing the door. It may be better, in Schednel’s view, to wait for the economy to improve. This building’s “going to find its right moment,” he said. “Good work always takes a little time.”

Whatever route the city takes, the Best Nest remains as captivating today as it was on Earth Day in 2004. Perfectly attuned to its site’s natural beauty and industrial might, this design richly deserves to go from promising sketch to glorious reality

Posted at 11:27:27 AM

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If the "grassroots environmental activists in Hegewisch" are stunned that they may not get their toy, maybe they should let go of that tree and raise some cash.

This is a building/complex that I've been looking forward to seeing built since it was announced as the winning design in 2004. It would be a wonderful landmark for the Southeast side of Chicago. A source of pride for an area that has been long depressed by the evacuation of the steel plants and other industries. The large undeveloped area is unique for a city our size, and merits this kind of attention. The design is incredible, and would be an iconic symbol of Chicago's commitment to the environment. Often projects are viewed as wasteful expenditures of taxpayer money. I really believe that attitude would be short-sighted when applied to this project. It would mean so much to the city in so many different ways. I really hope they can find the financing to get this built!